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Blog Action Day: Five apps to help save the world
TUAW is participating in this year's Blog Action Day on 10/15, an annual event in which bloggers around the world aim to spark discussion and awareness of serious and important issues. This year's topic is climate change, and fortunately, just like last year, we in the Apple community are in a pretty good place -- the company makes it a point to stay as green as possible, they have Al Gore on their board, and they make it safe and easy to dispose of their products in an environmentally friendly way. But there's always more we can do, from person to person -- making the earth a better place to live is going to take all of us working together. And so, here's five iPhone and iPod touch apps you can use to find out what you can do to take action on climate change. Some are paid, some are free, but all of them will give you fun and useful ways to help find approaches to dealing with climate change in your own behavior and life.
How green is Apple?
Is Apple a "green" company? Today is Blog Action Day, where 15,000 blogs are publishing posts about the environment. I have always thought of Apple having an eye towards the environment, but perhaps I think this is because I remember Apple eschewing extra paper on their boxes way back in the early days. You see, to get optimal 4-color print on a shipping box you have to wrap that box in an additional layer of glossy paper. For a while, Apple was content to ship the monochrome brown box with black ink, thus saving trees and ink. The original Mac boxes were white, but didn't use the glossy stuff.A year ago you may remember Apple being taken to task regarding their recycling efforts. In fact, Apple has been taken to task on their computer take back program, their packaging and now the scary hazardous chemicals in the iPhone. Shock, horror! Yes, it is obvious Apple is determined to coat the Earth in a fine sheen of clear plastic, aluminum and bromiated compounds. Evil I tells ya, evil.In their defense, Al Gore is on the board. OK, they have more than just Al. Steve Jobs issued a statement just a few months ago for a greener Apple. Naturally, there are still plenty of skeptics, but the site Green My Apple provides constructive criticism and a fairly healthy outlook for the future. Apple appears to have listened! Of course, they could just hire the Professor and make iPhones from coconuts, right? Given the fact that consumer electronics is about as un-green an industry as you can get, it'll be a very long road indeed before everyone is happy. Then again, as we know too well, there's no way to make everyone happy. The hope is that Apple will continue to innovate with "green" in mind. Not the back of the mind, but right up there in front where it'll do the most good.
Recycle your junk into a DS accessory
One of the more fun, crafty trends that has come up in DS fan culture is the homemade DS case. Clever fans are always looking for unusual materials from which they can make cute DS Lite cases. The results are often eye-catching and whimsical, and, on occasion, turn out to be useful as well. The crafters save money on materials, and waste less not only by not buying a new DS case (with disposable packaging) but by opting not to throw away something that has outlived its original usefulness.We're going to look at some of the recycled-material DS cases we've featured in the past, as well as a couple that we haven't. Then, finally, we'll present our own craft project, which is more on the 'silly' end of the DS case spectrum. It totally holds a DS, though!
Emulating Taurens IRL: Living with a minimum impact on the environment
This post is part of Blog Action Day, in coordination with Weblogs, Inc's Green Daily, a blog about living green and well at the same time. Visit Green Daily every day to learn how to live like a Tauren-- with minimum impact on our Earth's fragile environment. Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is the Environment. Of course, we're supposed to talk about the RL environment, but there are some lessons that we Earthlings can learn from some of the Azerothians -- namely the Taurens.Taurens live in harmony with the environment. I would also include Night Elves in this discussion, but they tend to have a greater impact on Azeroth -- everything seems to become all flowery and full of trees. While this may be a pleasing effect, who is to say that it is better than the way they originally found the land? You get the idea when looking at the Tauren lands, that if they were to up and leave Mulgore, the evidence of their civilization would be gone in a matter of years. They certainly would have left a minimum of damage behind -- perhaps some slight deforestation.
Eco Creatures on their way to save the planet
From the first whiff of Ecolis, before it became Ecoris, or even the English Eco Creatures: Save the Forest, we were charmed. We didn't need the details to fall in love with the game's whimsical look or the idea of controlling an army of fuzzy squirrels in our mission to save the forest. We're suckers for anything cute, after all, and this game has delivered on that in spades since we caught our first glimpse. We weren't alone, either. DS owners seem to love strategy games of all types (it's just part of our epic good taste), and from the start, we clamored together for an English-language release, as unlikely as it seemed. As the details unspooled -- the first amorphous hint of Wi-Fi functionality that was revealed to be online multiplayer among them -- our desire to get out there and prevent deforestation shot into the stratosphere. Ecoris was simply irresistible. One of our readers even turned the fruity hero into a sculpture and plans to follow up with Dorian's furry sidekicks. Even before Majesco announced the game's localization, Ecoris became a phenomenon, albeit a small one. %Gallery-4106%
